As we prepare to move our first group of horses to the new farm I’ve been making a supply list. We’ll have a period of time where horses will be at both locations so we need to be fully stocked with any needed supplies in both places. I’ve been making my list (and checking it twice) of any and all supplies I think could possibly be needed. It is really an obscene amount of stuff that you have to keep on hand to be prepared to care for horses. Most of the items will never get used (at least that is the hope!), however the minute you don’t have something on hand will be the time that you need it right away. So I am trying to be as thorough as possible. So far this is where I’m at with my list:
brush kit shampoo/conditioner medicated shampoo iodine shampoo sponges buckets vet wrap cotton wrap gauze rolls standing wraps duct tape feedbags/extra feedbags scissors (several pairs) latex gloves nitrile gloves DMSO saran wrap (leg sweat) furacin scarlet oil Swat small clippers feed scoops masking tape sharpies (black & silver) dry erase board fly masks fly spray vetrolin shine water trough scrubbie empty spray bottles animalintex pads soaking boot epsom salts poultice brown paper (poultice wrap) thermometer banamine (paste & liquid) dex eye meds SMZs ace bute (powder & paste) needles/syringes 60cc dose syringes
Some of these items I already had “overstocked” so I did not need to purchase them, but I had to order duplicates of a lot of them. Goodness that was a big bill! It is no wonder this pastime has earned the description of the Sport of Kings.
Work is progressing nicely at the farm. There is now a fence around the barn to fence it out of the pasture which is very helpful. Since we had built the perimeter fence before we knew where we were going to site the barn we hadn’t actually fenced off an area for the barn. So a few sections of fence had to be removed to allow for driveway access and then a fence was built around the barn.
The barn roof is done and fully insulated. Most of the windows are in as well. As far as the exterior goes the sides and the doors need to be done but that will go very quickly. After we complete the barn the plan is to build two more run-in sheds around it for a total of three run-ins in this area. We’ll then add some cross fencing to the large area that we have fenced.
Then we’ll extend our driveway even further into the property and basically we will repeat the process that we just completed. Build more perimeter fence, then run-ins, cross-fencing and a barn. Basically we want to set the entire property up as various work areas with the run-ins being built around the barns. It just didn’t make sense in the long run to build one barn in the middle of 150 acres. No matter how things were laid out it was going to be a very long hike to the barn from most areas. We are laying out the property to maximize work efficiency and to make the best use of the land for the horses. It would sure be nice to win the lottery right now. I guess our odds of that would increase dramatically if we ever actually purchased lottery tickets!
I hope everyone has a wonderful long Labor Day weekend. As usual Jason and I will celebrate Labor Day by laboring!
View taken from the road, barn in front with run-in behind. We will be building two more run-ins, one behind the barn and one on the right hand side directly opposite of the run-in already built. Cross fencing will be added to make three separate pastures.
Rooftops of the run-in and barn can be seen from the very back of the property
We let our neighbors cut hay off of about 90 acres of the farm to save us from having to bushhog it. They were doing that this weekend. Look at how thick the hay is! They ended up getting 350 large round bales.
They had quite a crew working on the hay. One guy was raking, another was baling, two were loading hay and 4 people were driving hay trailers.
Sebastian, Faune and Winston
Grand and Elfin
Homer and Hemi
Murphy and Asterik hanging out
Dutch and Murphy grooming each other
Alex and B-Rad
Mina
Hemi, Baby and Chance
Levendi
Elfin and Homer